Aaahahhhhh!!!1

[MissMaul]

Oh my god, what the hell is an Eremite?!?!?

Alright, so I'm minding my own business in CAV, flying in my yalm looking for the adv quest dude. (My volume was like max)

When all of a sudden...

"ROOOAAARAAARRARRRARAWRWRARWRAR!!!11" this GIGANTIC ugly-arse worm jumps out of the ground and eats my face off!!!

...DUDE!

[______________Orchid]

Faunlore Encyclopedia of Rubi Ka : Eremite

[Allbronz]

So that is what those things are. I had two of them attack me outside of Wine lastnight. I thought I had no chance but I was very lucky to be within range of the laser cannons that are outside of wine. Scared the hell out of me when they shot out of the ground.

[______________Fenris]

LOL you should see how pissed they are when you use the root'n shoot tactic. They just stand there seething with anger waiting to bury you as soon as the root breaks... oh yah nothing more fun than Eremites. I hold a personal grudge against Eremites and all spiders. They pwned me as a lowbie and I remind them that paybacks are hell every chance I get. hehe good luck!

[Japella]

theres a nice Eremite Statue in Rome by the Whampah...

[Gogliostro]

Eremites..leave them alone and they're a nice bunch. But I guess you can't really know that until you've met one..which you can't do because then they're not nice anymore. *spins around* Hmm..how do I know then? *hides his roots and walks away slowly*

[krystanova]

I LOVE Eremites. They're by far the most well-developed and interesting of the animals FC has placed in Rubi-Ka's wilds (though Baratons, Nokken, Medusae, Enigmae, and Pit Dragons are also close). Please note that there aren't JUST Eremites, either. There are also Cenobites and Anchorites, and each of them is nasty and pops out of the ground. I've seen them hundreds of times, and they still give me the occasional jump.

As for statues, there are three known Eremite statues:

1.) Rome Red... my central location. This is where I do business. Want to meet me in-game, when I'm on and not missioning or hunting, meet me here!

2.) An altar in Andromeda... this one moves around though. It has been cited in several different locations there.

3.) The Eremite Altar in Deep Artery Valley. This one is the big one, and part of the evidence (among other things) supporting the idea that Eremites and friends were around BEFORE the arrival of Omni-Tek. This is also one of the most interesting, and most dangerous locations on Rubi-Ka, moreso since 14.5.

Good exploring!

Rhiannon "Krystanova" Pourier

Visit Faunlore: Rubi-Kan Wildlife at:
http://beastiary.somnaterrae.org

And for Eremites, follow Emiko's link above. Thanks Emiko!

[Xaielao]

Erumites rock. I remember the first time I encountered one. I was about 50th lvl and had just gotten my first yalm, so I was really exploring. While looking for the enigma forest, I came upon a wild looking tree and it had those enigma dogs under it, they were cute and non-agressive so decided to land and check the area out.

No sooner did I drop from my yalm and run over to check the little dog out but the ground rumbled and suddenly this HUGE beast was towering over me. CRUNCH.. he killed me in one hit. I couldn't believe it.. I didn't even have time to react.

[Jynne]

Originally posted by Krystanova
I LOVE Eremites. They're by far the most well-developed and interesting of the animals FC has placed in Rubi-Ka's wilds (though Baratons, Nokken, Medusae, Enigmae, and Pit Dragons are also close). Please note that there aren't JUST Eremites, either. There are also Cenobites and Anchorites, and each of them is nasty and pops out of the ground. I've seen them hundreds of times, and they still give me the occasional jump.

As for statues, there are three known Eremite statues:

1.) Rome Red... my central location. This is where I do business. Want to meet me in-game, when I'm on and not missioning or hunting, meet me here!

2.) An altar in Andromeda... this one moves around though. It has been cited in several different locations there.

3.) The Eremite Altar in Deep Artery Valley. This one is the big one, and part of the evidence (among other things) supporting the idea that Eremites and friends were around BEFORE the arrival of Omni-Tek. This is also one of the most interesting, and most dangerous locations on Rubi-Ka, moreso since 14.5.

Good exploring!

Rhiannon "Krystanova" Pourier

Visit Faunlore: Rubi-Kan Wildlife at:
http://beastiary.somnaterrae.org

And for Eremites, follow Emiko's link above. Thanks Emiko!

Speaking OOCly, Eremites are great fun to hunt. That you can't see them until they're on top of you is neat

However, and unfortunately, eremites do not pre-exist human colonization on Rubi-Ka. Ragnar Tornquist, the story developer for AO, posted several times on the Story Discussions forum that there has been no confirmed findings of life in the galaxy that didn't originate from earth with humans. Anything you might consider an 'alien' species - including eremites, medusae, and enigmas - is actually a genetically engineered Earth species, or a mutation induced by the notum that is omnipresent in Rubi-Ka's environment. Or both.

[krystanova]

Ah, but there were no confirmed sightings BEFORE full scale colonization. if I remember correctly, previous authorized statements on the Engimae and the Medusae have indicated that they arrived AFTER colonization and their motives are unknown... putting a nod in the direction of being alien.

Further, in the case of Eremites, it is very possible that the Eremites were the ones who destroyed the first explorers of Rubi-Ka. Would we know, since such a situation could not be publicly confirmed? Could it not be that Omni-Tek specifically colonized hid the information on Eremites, and said they were introduced? Could it not be that Omni-Tek HID the fact that there were these vicious animals on Rubi-Ka to smooth the way for their lease on the planet? Would that be the first time a corporation lied and misled to get something they wanted?

Taking the word of Omni-Tek is "fine" if you do not believe in disinformation campaigns. Simply because there are no "confirmed" public sightings or contact means nothing. All of what has been proposed (by myself AND many others) lies within the realm of possibility within the framework we have been provided. This is especially true since NO ONE at from FC has given a good explanation about any beasts beyond those specifically discussed in the manual. And, hell, I consider it more plausible and more fun if we approach it that way from an RP perspective.

In the words of Bionitrous, whom Nynx had a long debate on this is: until and unless FC gives us a full explanation of EVERY beast and what function they serve being on Rubi-Ka, such speculation is possible, if only because of that word "confirmed."

Rhiannon "Krystanova" Pourier

Visit Faunlore: Rubi-Kan Wildlife at:
http://beastiary.somnaterrae.org

[Jynne]

Ragnar
Creative Director

Registered: Nov 2001
Location:
Posts: 58

quote:
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Originally posted by Jynne
Speaking of the Outzone and the outlaying areas of the planet, although this isn't really related to the Tir Accords, I was wondering what the story was on some of the monsters and mutants that are most common in those areas. Specifically, I want to know what's up with the Eremite-type monsters, the Medusas, the Demon-types, the Sandworm-types, the various Enigma creatures, Fossegrims, and the Bileswarms. Oh, and Primal Chirops...
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Good question, although I'm not sure what you mean by "those areas", seeing as - aside from OT scientists - no one has access to the Outzone (i.e. no players out there). The Outzone and the outlying areas inside the terraformed regions are as different as night and day.

(As for what kind of beasties and meanies you might encounter in the Outzone...no comment! )

Inside the terraformed regions - the atmosphere is contained, I believe, by energy shields - the "wildlife" is defined by region. Typically, the less-travelled, and regulated, areas will contain the largest number of extra-mean meanies. There's absolutely no way for any kind of living creature to pass from inside the terraformed regions to the Outzone. Absolutely no way. At all.

Umm. Yes.


quote:
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Most of the other monsters/mutants in the game are explained in the manual or are reasonably explicable as being of human origin even if they weren't intentionally created by people - in most but not all cases, by Omni-Med.
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Keep in mind that there *are*no*aliens*! I've said it before, and I'll be more than happy to run that by y'all one more time:

There are no aliens!

Every single monster on Rubi-Ka - yes, even the excessively silly ones that make absolutely no sense at all - are either mutated humans, mutated animals, fishes, or birds, or weird laboratory creations, manufactured by nutty scientists with waaay too much free time and resources on their hands.

And that goes for all the monsters listed above, including (ack!) Medusas. We're looking into (yay, everyone's favourite: "looking into"!) creating a database with information - and background - on all the monsters, but it'll take a while to cover everything. Writing takes time. And it's hard.


quote:
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Edit: Isn't Omni-Tek responsible for policing and safeguarding all territory - Clan territory included - from mutants, cyborgs, and other 'monsters' under the aegis of "planetary security" as outlined in the Accords?
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Heh. Yeah. What, you expected OT to uphold all the tenets of the Tir Accord? Get real! The mutant problem is a big problem, but getting rid of the gene-engineered wildlife won't make OT a single buck (or credit), which is why the problem is getting gradually bigger (with more tentacles and goo). Besides, mutant meat feeds the hungry masses, and leets make for great target-practice. Yes, it's OT's doing, and they've been told, repeatedly, by the ICC to eliminate dangerous mutant wildlife, but no, they have no plans to do so.

Now who's not evil? (Not that I'm claiming OT is evil, mind you. After all, actions speak louder than words...except really, really loud words, which, to be fair, speak louder than actions.)

-Ragnar

See the full thread here at http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...0&pagenumber=2

[Bionitrous]

Just remember that Ragnar has a habit of letting his multi-canvassed storytelling approach work it's way into his posts.

He's been so completely adamant that there are no 'aliens' in more than just the above-mentioned post that it's quite obvious that he's secretly grinning behind the monitor as he puts down those words.

Remember in Prophet without Honor that Roland Drake is obviously aided by something that is somewhere between human and what we perceive as a 'god'. Alien?

Also, we have to realize that the backstory of the Shadowlands is that mankind was not kicked out of some mythological 'Eden' but rather kicked off of Rubi'Ka. AO is the story of our return to our birthplace and the final struggle between two sides to determine what is truly 'evil' and what is 'good' (obviously the winning side is 'good').

So mankind inhabited Rubi'Ka before being exiled. It's quite possible that we built those statues. Now, why they would be Eremites, I don't know. We know when 'the stranger' took off his outfit and revealed himself to Roland Drake there was an implied surprise, if not horror. But, I wouldn't be so sure about humanity 'worshipping' Eremites way back when. Perhaps the statues being used as 'scarecrows' by a primitive human culture.

The modern day Eremite does not communicate nor show any discretion in killing humans. It just doesn't seem smart. Certainly not something to worship in a creator-like manner. Likewise, I can't see the Eremites being capable of creating humanity. I think I'll reserve that for whatever showed itself to Roland Drake (and granted him immortality, and all the other stuff).

So, the 'unknown things' created life on Rubi'Ka. Then created man and gave him Rubi'Ka to rule over. Of course Man spoiled it and was kicked out of the 'garden of eden' and forfeited his chance at eternal life (notum and Insurance technology ringing a bell for anyone here??).

So, Omni-Tek is obviously in cahoots with some of these super beings through the indirect guidance of Roland Drake. It seems obvious that Omni-Tek would insist that there is nothing to see here, move along please. As it is, we all know they have seriously insidious and evil intentions regarding Rubi'Ka and it's domination/exploitation. Should word leak out about the true nature of the planet before they are fully prepared, Omni-Tek might encounter more resistance than they are equipped to fend off. Hence the inistance that life and humanity started and solely exists on Earth and didn't start anywhere else (and most definately not some dusty rock they just 'happened' to take a wandering beeline to directly across the galaxy from Earth and that they just 'happened' to decide to colonize before even sending out a single reconnaisance team.)

That should give you a background as to why Omni-Tek and Ragnar insist there has never been any evidence of life outside Earthly origin. I play along with this rhetoric from time to time to help him out.

But, the questions regarding the Eremites remain: how did they survive, why were they (and other species??) allowed to remain after man was banished, why would early humans build alters to such an evil beast and not their own creators?, ....

[Jynne]

Actually Bio, I think that Ragnar's being honest about this much: none of the creatures we can encounter in-game currently are aliens of any sort. Eremites included. Where did the statue come from in DAV? It could quite possibly have been built by humanoid mutants for their own purposes, such as the medusae who live nearby. There is ample evidence of many humanoid or human-based mutant species building things. Any given structure in the game didn't necessarily have to come from 'pure' humans at all, though most probably have.

Now, about the "Others" - it's perfectly possible that they are humans. Some of the original humans who were booted from Rubi-Ka, for example. Obviously they're linked somehow to the Shadowlands and all that goes with it... but we also know it will be possible for 'modern day' humans like our characters to exist in the Shadowlands... so it remains possible - if not likely - that the Others are actually humans. Powerful humans, of course, or humans at another (earlier or later) stage of human evolution, but still humans.

The fact that the Others are God-like and that Roland was surprised by what he saw is inconclusive... the Omegas are God-like too but they are still humans. He might have been surprised because of what he didn't see just as easily as he might have been surprised by what he did when the Other revealed itself to him. He quite probably was expecting a God or a Monster, so seeing a Man would be a surprise.

EDIT: I think this is actually quite likely, seeing as how Prophet Without Honor and the AO storyline as a whole is very human-centric. The Storyline is supposedly about humanity and human destiny, if I recall rightly... introducing the Others as actual God-Beings that are not humans would ruin that theme. What is the importance of human destiny if humans are just being used as tools by the quarrelling Gods of the 30th century's Mount Olympus (the Shadowlands)?

[Bionitrous]

Nice valid points there Jynne. I'll still hold on to my belief that Ragnar's a bit TOO emphatic when he (and Omni-Tek) go off about there being no life of otherworld origin. Yer on the money as far as us only being able to guess 'what' it was that smuggled Roman (now Roland) out of Russia and set this whole thing in motion.

So when man was originally on Rubi'Ka and had eternal life, what was all around him? What was interpreted as the fish and fowl and fauna that he coexisted with and the flora he lived on? Or, do we think perhaps that the actual planet of Rubi'Ka was not where the 'garden of eden' was, but rather the Garden is somewhere close by but related more to the Shadowlands? Basically that we've come close to making it back to the Garden, but simply the surface of R-K is not there yet.

Now, you raise an interesting point. Who is to say that all of humanity ended up on Earth? Hmmmm ....

What if there are fragments of humanity scattered throughout the Galaxy? Our civilization does not go back very far; couple hundred thousand years at the absolute max as I recall. The funny thing is still that 'missing link' that scientists can't figure out. All of a sudden 'poof' all hell broke loose and we had Homo Erectus with no real link to the primates.

Imagine if Ragnar is playing this angle and these 'others' (the apparently evil ones building up Omni-Tek) are part of a similar sequence of events on some other planet. They're now manipulating Earth humans to do their dirty work and 'take back' what they very well know to be their place of origin and guaranteed eternal life.

Heck, as far as the AO mythos goes, we know that even Earth mankind held on to shreds of the legends through his various religions recounting the early days of humanity in a place thousands of lightyears away. Who's to say some other fragment of Adam and Eve's progeny didn't do a better job of record keeping?

Yeah, kinda veering thread off-topic. But, somewhere in all of this is the question of what happened to any other lifeforms when Man was kicked out? Did they go with, or were they (as I tossed out the idea of them being) left behind for tens of millenia?

[Jynne]

Oh, I agree Ragnar's not telling everything. He's said as much... I'm just saying that there are explanations for the various weirdnesses on Rubi-Ka and in Prophet Without Honor that don't include alien species, or even species that pre-date Earth-human colonization of Rubi-Ka. Ragnar seemed to definitively state that any of the mutant or monstrous species on Rubi-Ka were the result of either intentional human creation or the interplay of the environment, notum in particular, with the gene-engineered creatures OT used to create the biosphere or aid mining or military operations.

We also have to bear in mind that the face of the world today is not necessarily the face of the world years ago. It's possible the eremite statue, for example, was erected by humans or mutants who no longer live anywhere near DAV. They moved on, but left the statue. Likewise with Home and the Pyramid therein. And with the Temple of Three Winds. People have been on Rubi-Ka for hundreds if not thousands of years if I recall correctly. Ample time for things to be built and abandoned in, their stories forgotten by most, anyway.

So, we have to keep in mind that the original builders of anything we might find out of place may have been mutants rather than pure humans, and have possibly dispersed, died off, moved away, been driven away, or otherwise abandoned their creation.

That said, there are many blips with the story, the Timeline in particular, that hint at the presence of something that's not of Earth-human origin on Rubi-Ka, something that predated Earth-human colonization and terraforming. Like what happened to the crew of one of the survey ships, and how the second exploded. And what happened to that military outpost where everyone disappeared without a trace. And the way that the planet's weather has been almost uncontrollable - indeed how it seemed at times to be intelligently directed. And what happened to that ship that vanished in hyperspace. Etcetera. But it's possible that these are the actions of the Others, or beings like the Others that are actually in the Shadowlands, and kind of 'poke their fingers' through to Rubi-Ka from the other side of the veil seperating the two planes of existence.

It's also obvious that OT is keeping as much information about Rubi-Ka to itself as it possibly can, almost certainly under the direction of the Omegas, who themselves are under the direction of the Others. But the cover-up isn't necessarily a cover-up of the existence of aliens... in fact from the perspective of the Omegas and the Others a verifiable discovery of aliens would be another thing to distract the masses from their string-pulling and the real action on Rubi-Ka. The cover-up is more likely a cover-up of the origin of humans and the possible existence of humans in advanced states such as the Omegas and the Others.

It's just my opinion... but I think the Story comes from and goes back to humanity, always. Not gods, not aliens, humans

[Bionitrous]

Here's a somewhat rhetorical question:

Do you think that the classical Judeo-Christian Adam and Eve were 'slaves' in a similar sense as were the Solitus under the Omegas?

Both were sort of provided with a Utopian society but were denied 'awareness' of a sort. Both retained their 'free will' and hence their 'humanity'.

But, in both instances, I can't help but conjure up the image of 'pets'.

Is this a third wave of even grander proportions being attempted?

Would be nice to get into O-T's databanks and see what the original plans for the Eremites were assuming they were bio-engineered.

[Jynne]

Originally posted by Bionitrous
Here's a somewhat rhetorical question:

Do you think that the classical Judeo-Christian Adam and Eve were 'slaves' in a similar sense as were the Solitus under the Omegas?

Both were sort of provided with a Utopian society but were denied 'awareness' of a sort. Both retained their 'free will' and hence their 'humanity'.

But, in both instances, I can't help but conjure up the image of 'pets'.

Is this a third wave of even grander proportions being attempted?

I am eagerly awaiting the future of the Storyline where we'll at least get some serious hints to the answers here. There is indeed a parallel and I will posit that the Judeo-Christian Adam and Eve were only free-willed in the theoretical sense until after the Serpent opened them to the alternatives other than obedience to God. There is a difference between 'existential possibility' and 'theoretical possibility' and although according to Judeo-Christian theology God created Humanity as being free-willed, God did not create Humanity with the knowledge of good and evil; ie, God did not create Humanity with the ability to make our own judgements and decide our own values in practice. In other words, before the Temptation of Eve, humans were free to choose but only knew of one choice.

Would be nice to get into O-T's databanks and see what the original plans for the Eremites were assuming they were bio-engineered.

I've speculated - purely speculated - that the eremites are a mutation of the snake species (grass snakes, blood-stoppers, etc). My only evidence is that they look very similar in terms of body and head shape, including the feelers/tentacles on their heads too. But it is possible that some snakes drank the wrong green goo or lay their eggs in a notum deposit and ended up eremites.

Ragnar also mentioned that Clan and Neutral scientists, as well as official and unofficial OT experiments have created some of the critters out there.

[schma]

Originally posted by Krystanova

As for statues, there are three known Eremite statues:

1.) Rome Red...

2.) An altar in Andromeda...

3.) The Eremite Altar in Deep Artery Valley.

.. then I can tell you I know of one more

it's in SAV, but it's not that easy to find..

Happy exploring to you too =)

- schma

[______________Orchid]

hehe.. the plot thickens, but unfortunately the more humans rationalize and conceptualize, generally the further they are removed from the mark.. indeed do many strange things come to pass....